Park. — Geological History of Eastern Marlborough. 69 



is represented in these conglomerates, including old slates and sandstones 

 and crystalline rocks from the inland ranges, volcanic rocks belonging to 

 the Amuri group, green sandstone from the ' saurian beds,' and great 

 masses of Amuri limestone, and large blocks of fossiliferous conglomerate 

 containing abundance of Awatere fossils ; also blocks of sandy limestone 

 and fine-grained standstones with abundance of Awatere fossils. These 

 beds cannot be less than 200 ft. in thickness, and in places they rise to a 

 height of 850 ft. above the sea. Like the Awatere beds, the conglomerates 

 never pass to the eastward of the Amuri limestone, nor do they reach to the 

 lower grounds on the west side of the range ; but, as they are but the 

 remnant of a formation that must once have covered a considerable extent 

 of country, other outliers of them will probably yet be found to the south 

 and west." 



Referring to the conglomerates at Heaver's Creek, he says (1886, p. 115), 

 ' They are rudely stratified, at places showing that the beds are standing 

 nearly vertical ; in the lower part are enormous blocks of Amuri limestone 

 and masses of soft marly strata, which it seems impossible to convey any 

 distance and deposit in the position in which they are found. ... It 

 is impossible to give any description which will convey a correct idea of 

 the pell-mell manner in which the various materials of this conglomerate- 

 breccia are mixed together." Further on he says some of the masses of 

 Amuri limestone in this deposit at Shades Creek " are of such an extent 

 that at first sight they might be taken for an outcrop of this rock in situ." 



Relationship of Post-Miocene Conglomerate to Underlying Ter- 

 tiary Formations. 



The stratigraphical succession of the formations represented in eastern 

 Marlborough is : — 



(1.) Post-Miocene conglomerate. 



(2.) Awatere clay and marly beds. 



(3.) " Grey marls." 



(1.) Amuri limestone. 



(5.) Cretaceous strata. 



(6.) Juro-Triassic basement rocks. 

 Near the coast the conglomerate-breccia rests on the Amuri limestone, 

 and in the Clarence Valley on the " grey marls." It contains angular 

 masses derived from the underlvina; Cretaceous strata, Amuri limestone, 

 " grey marls," and Awatere beds. McKay (1886 and 1890) and Hector 

 (1886) considered it unconformable to the Awatere beds, a conclusion which 

 I had no difficulty in endorsing in 1910. 



Cotton (1910), in a general account of the geology and physiography 

 of eastern Marlborough, expressed the view that the conglomerate-breccia 

 was conformable to the " grey marls," and this opinion appears to be 

 supported by Thomson (1919). If this tumbled and confused deposit is 

 conformable to the " grey marls," the question arises, what has become 

 of the Awatere beds ? And in like manner, where it rests on the Amuri 

 limestone, we may ask, what has become of both the " grey marls " and 

 Awatere beds ? It may be suggested that the conglomerate-breccia is the 

 equivalent of the Awatere beds ; but clearly this is impossible, as large 

 masses of the latter are contained in the conglomerate. 



Referring to the difficulty presented by the view of conformity, Thomson 

 (1919) says, " Cotton accounts for the peculiar features of the conglomerate 

 — viz., that it lies conformably on the ; srev marls ' but contains materials 



